Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Dr. Joanne Wilson announced that Dr. Jennifer Collins is the new director of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville's School of Education.
"We are very pleased to have Dr. Jennifer Collins as the director for the School of Education," the provost said. "She is very passionate about education, and that energy shows through in all she does. Dr. Collins also brings a wealth of experience to the position."
Collins, an associate professor of education and assistant director in the School of Education, has been at UW-Platteville since 2015. She earned the university's inaugural Nimocks Family Faculty Appreciation Award in 2017.
Collins earned a Bachelor of Arts in Russian language from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; a Master of Arts in teaching from Queens College, Charlotte, North Carolina; a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction – urban education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina; and a Master of Education in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Prior to working at UW-Platteville, Collins worked as an associate professor in the Cato School of Education at Queens University of Charlotte. Before entering higher education, she taught 10 years in public school classrooms, the majority of the time supporting students in Title I schools. Collins was recently named to the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance board of directors as its new higher education representative.
"We had outstanding candidates and finalists," Wilson said. "This was a very tough choice because of the quality of the finalists. I commend the search-and-screen committee for its thoroughness and thoughtfulness."
Collins will begin her new role on July 1, 2019.